Daniel Schultz evaluates the PBS program on the rise of the Nones. (click)
The overlooked demographic is the increase in Single Households, a change that will affect all aspects of culture. (click)
Dwight Garner reminds us of the groundbreaking stories of the late Chinua Achebe. (click)
Jonathan Kandell’s obituary of Chinua Achebe outlines his development and importance. (click)
Scott Timberg suggests that the decimation of the “creative class” (artists, writers, musicians, architects, those parts of the media, the fine arts, publishing, TV, and other fields) could be reversed by the revival of trade unions. (click)
A very productive UK skeptic. (click)
Andrew DiMaggio, dissatisfied with public treatments of the Iraq war, fashioned a probing questionnaire a year ago and sampled Illinois opinions. What he discovered was that objections to the war were widespread — and moral (rather than pragmatic). “Americans from what I’ve seen do seem happy to move on from the terrible, criminal affair that was the invasion and occupation of Iraq….When academics, journalists, pollsters, and politicians all join together to consciously ignore moral challenges to U.S. foreign policy, then it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to have a rational national dialogue on war.” (click)
Excerpts from Ronald Dworkin’s forthcoming (and posthumous) book. He seems to be distinguishing between science and values and arguing that a godless religion would have to assume the independent nature of values. We will need to see the whole book to see if we agree with his rejection of naturalism (which he equates with the position of Richard Dawkins). But he clearly seems to be separating values from both science and religion.(click)
Justin Barrett discusses ways that assumptions of agency affect humans from childhood in their believing in gods. (click)
